Life on the Earth would be dull and even impossible without science and scientific inventions. Russian scientists have achieved great success in the development of physics, especially atomic physics, chemistry, biology, and others.

Let's take peaceful atom, for e.g. Atomic icebreakers lead caravans of ships through the thick Arctic icefields. Atomic power stations give electric power to many towns, factories, villagers and farms in Russia (the peaceful atom has its role in medicine, too). A lot of robots have been built in our country for industry, transport (remember tractors in Chernobyl ), medicine and agriculture.

Not long ago in 1955 the world “laser” became known, too. The first laser was invented by the American Theodor Maiman. A laser is a machine for making and concentrating light waves into a very intense beam. The letters LASER stand for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. The light made by a laser is more intense than ordinary light all the light waves are of different length and with the laser there are same length and this increases the intensity.

Lasers are used now for many scientific, medical and industrial purposes. The thin beam of light gives a lot of heat and is used to join metal, when a very small joint is needed. The beam can also be used as a drill to make holes in steal or even diamonds. Because the beam is very small it's very important in delicate surgery and is used in eye operations.

Laser today are used also in electronics, communications, in machine building and in many other fields of science and national economy.

It's possible to use lasers for long distance space communications and the transmission of energy to space stations. With the laser it is possible to measure great distances, e.g.; the distance to the Moon is measured by the time the light signal tares to reach the Moon and return.